Poetry Terms

AP Lit Poetry words

Line

A vertical grouping (or lack thereof) of words in a poem

Stanza

A group of lines in a poem

Envoi

A final stanza that is very short

Refrain

Repetition of a line or group of lines throughout the poem (think of a song!).

Couplet

A group of two lines that usually rhyme and have the same rhythm

“Your breath makes me want to puke/Your hygiene I must rebuke”

Heroic Couplet

Two lines of rhymed iambic pentameter

“I know when you do not bother to read/SparkNotes and Shmoop will just make you grade bleed”

Tercet

A group or rhymed or unrhymed three lines

Quatrain

A group of four line (then sextet, octet/octave, etc.)

Cinquain

A five line poem in which the syllable count increases in each line from two to four to six to eight ten back to two.

Rhyme Royal

A poem of seven lines in iambic pentameter with a rhyme scheme of ABABBCC

Canto

A long subsection of an epic or longer poem

Free Verse

A poem without a set struction of rhythm or rhyme

Blank Verse

An unrhymed poem in iambic pentameter

Ballad

A poem that tells a story about a specific event (also called a Narrtive). Ballads have typically been passed down orally

Concrete Poetry

When the poet uses the text to create a visual image of the subject itself

Dirge

A brief hymm of lamentation or grief

Elegy

A poem that laments the dead, but usually ends in consolation

Epic Poem

A long poem concerning the journey of a hero

Epigram

A pithy, witty poem

Epistle

A poem in the form of a letter. It usually addresses someone close to the writer

Lyric Poem

A short poem that was originally meant for music

Ode

A long poem about a stately or serious subject

Palinode

A poem that recants what a poet has previously asserted in another poem

Pastoral/Bucolic

A poem that dpicts a rural scene

Rondeau

A round

Sestina

A complex 39-line poem that contains six stanza of six lines and a three-line ending. In each line, words are repeated in a specific order:
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Sonnet

A poem of fourteen lines in iambic pentameter

Shakespearean/Elizabethan Sonnet

Rhyme of ABABCDCDEFEFGG and dividied into three quatrains and a couple

Italian/Petrarchan Sonnet

Rhyme of ABBAABBACDCDCD or ABBA ABBACDECDE and divided by an octave and sestet

Triolet

an eight-line stanza having just two rhymes and repeating the first line and the fourth and seventh line, and the second line as the eighth line

Villanelle

A poem of 19-lines in which the first and third line alternately repeat throughout. It is typically divided into five tercets and one quatrain.

Versification

The system of rhyme and meter in poetry

Stress/Accent

The emphasis given to certain sounds - usually long vowels or words with high pitch

Scansion

Marking the stresses in a line of poetry

Rhyme

words that have similar sounds

End Rhyme

Rhyme that occurs at the end of lines of poetry
“‘Cause even our birthdays is cursed days/A born thug in the first place, the words ways”

Internal Rhyme

Rhyme that occurs inside a line of poetry
“While I nodded, nearly napping, suddenly there came a tapping/ As someone gently raping, rapping at my chamber door.”

Real Rhyme

Rhyme that is exact
“Now ain’t nobody tell us it was fair/No love from my daddy ‘cause the coward wasn’t there”

Half/Slant Rhyme

Rhyme that isn’t exact, but implied
“They say I’m wrong and I’m heartless, but all along/I was lookin’ for a father he was gone”

Feminine Rhyme

A multi-syllable rhyme that ends in an unstressed syllable
“Think’st thou to seduce me then with words that have no meaning?”